Bulgari Hotels Sees Unhurried Growth as a Way to Retain Its Cachet

25.08.2023 - 13:51 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Morgan Stanley / Marriott International / Giorgio Armani

Bulgari Hotels & Resorts opened its eighth hotel on April 4, the Bulgari Hotel Tokyo.

“It has taken us 22 years to open eight hotels,” said Silvio Ursini, the group executive vice president of the hotels and resorts division of the Italian jeweler. “We’re not in a rush.”

Yet Bulgari (pronounced ) is picking up its modest pace. It will open its ninth ultra-luxury hotel later this year in Rome. Upcoming openings include Maldives and Miami Beach in 2025 and Los Angeles in 2026.

“We want maybe 15 hotels maximum down the road,” Ursini said.

Bulgari’s caution contrasts with the trend elsewhere. Many high-end hotel brands aim to scale up. Aman Resorts has 34 properties. Rosewood has 41 hotels. Over six decades, Four Seasons has arrived at 126 luxury hotels and resorts and 53 branded residences. All have pipelines for growth.

And all of these hotels are in a rarefied atmosphere. A stay at the Bulgari Tokyo, for example, would cost $3,890 this weekend for a double room, according to a recent search. Bulgari believes that those rates insulate it from traditional competitive pressures, even without a loyalty program or a broad network of properties.

“The economies of scale at this level are not so imperative,” Ursini said. “You can have one very successful, very profitable hotel and be perfectly happy depending on your business model.”

That said, cracking the U.S. market is important. Its first U.S. hotel property is slated to open in 2025, Bulgari Miami Beach.

When Bulgari announced the move into branded hotels in 2002, a Morgan Stanley analyst described the effort as “an unnecessary risk.”

Yet over time, it has returned value to shareholders of parent company LVMH.

A few other high-end luxury names have played the hospitality game, but in smaller ways. Fashion house Giorgio Armani has a mini-chain of Armani Hotels and Resorts, starting with Dubai and Milan. Rival Versace has built Palazzo Versace hotels in Australia and Dubai, though it’s de-flagging the Australia one. Dolce & Gabbana plans to build a resort in the Maldives with help from Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan.

“Their approach to opening impeccably selected hotels in prime locations while maintaining an uncompromising commitment to the consistency of their distinctive design and brand values is not only the right strategy but also a risk-adjusted one,” said Joe Pettigrew, chief commercial officer for hotel asset management at Starwood Capital Group.

“It’s easy to compromise the brand when there is too much focus on growth,” Pettigrew said. “They have over 100 years of brand equity and reputation at stake, and the hospitality business needs to be accretive to the overall brand.”

What Bulgari knows — and others seem to be learning — is that the